


just before the sunrise

by fangirl6202



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Getting Together, Hispanic Character, Italian Racetrack Higgins, Light Angst, M/M, Modern Era, Morning After, Soft Spot Conlon, Spot Conlon is Bad at Feelings, Spot Conlon/Racetrack Higgins-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:34:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23715274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fangirl6202/pseuds/fangirl6202
Summary: Spot Conlon hadn't seen Racetrack Higgins in 5 years, not since he ran away to California after highschool. Now he's back in his old neighborhood and a city wide blackout has the two longtime friends finally doing what they should have done years ago.
Relationships: Spot Conlon/Racetrack Higgins
Comments: 5
Kudos: 40





	just before the sunrise

A smile and a kiss woke Sean Conlon from his slumber. Without even opening his eyes, he kissed back, finding his partner's face and holding it gently.

They broke apart, but Spot kept his face where it was. The two boy's lips were against one another's, simply breathing in one another's presence. When Spot did open his eyes, he saw the most person in the world staring back at him, a smile playing on his lips.

It was dark, definitely before 7 in the morning, but there was no way he wouldn't recognize the boy lying next to him.

"Hey there, pretty boy." Spot whispered. There was a certain tranquility surrounding them, one that he wasn't keen on breaking. Spot wanted to stay like this as long as he could.

"Good morning, Spotty."

He smiled, running his hand down Racetrack's cheek to his shoulder. Race moaned slightly at the contact so he kept going until the boy winced. Spot jolted back, pulling his hand away as if it burned.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," the younger boy said. "Just a little sore after..."

At Spot's look of confusion, Race smiled shyly before pulling the cover off of him. He was lying completely nude, and Spot's eyes widened.

There were bruises on the boy's hips, a light yellow-ish green color in the shape of fingers.

Spot's fingers.

"Oh _fuck_."

He sat up, pressing a hand to his head as memories of the previous night came flooding back.

_The 'welcome home' dinner with Race's family, his brother Jack's vile comments about him, Spot's furious walk out and finding himself in a club he barely knew._

_Race finding him but Spot was too mad to be calmed, Race leaving to stop himself from saying something they'd both regret. The fight with a stranger that broke out because of his fucking temper and the sudden city wide black out that stopped it._

_Even though they were both pissed off beyond belief, Spot running through the dark and dangerous streets of Brooklyn trying to find him. There was so much screaming and panic that it was a miracle Spot could find anyone._

_The struggle when he did find Race, trying to get him home, and the screaming match that ended in "Damn it Race! I love you too fucking much to see you hurt!"_

_The way Race threw himself at Spot, their lips meeting too violently for it to truly be considered a kiss. The run for Spot's apartment hand in hand because they both knew it was closer than Race's home._

_The way they tore through Spot's door, lips already finding one another in the darkness as Race pulled him into the bedroom. Spot getting pulled down on top of Race on the bed, his fingers finding the buttons on Spot's shirt_ _and-_

He screwed his eyes shut.

"Spot?" He asked, and the creak he heard only meant that Race sat up too. "Spot, you ok?"

"We shouldn't have done that. _I_ shouldn't have done that."

"Sean, look at me."

The sound of his name and the feeling of Race's fingers under his chin, lightly turning Spot's head towards him made him open his eyes.

"You did _nothing_ I didn't ask you to. You hear me? Nothing."

He glanced down at the boy's body, very little of it being covered. Scratch marks on his upper thigh, bruises on his hips, hickeys on his lower neck and his chest.

Spot did that. All of it.

"We weren't ready for that, Anthony." He responded. "You deserved so much better for your first time."

The two had known each other since childhood and Spot couldn't help but feel that he had violated those years of friendship and trust. He felt dirty somehow.

"Don't do that." Race said and Spot's eyes widened at the firmness in his voice. The boy was a jokester, rarely held a serious note in his voice. "Don't you dare bring yourself down like that, Spot."

His face softened, scanning Spot's face up and down. "I'm not going to lie to you, it hurt. So much more than I expected it to, but you know what else I didn't expect? For someone to take care of me as much as you did.

"You held my hand the entire time, Spot. Anytime I made any sound, you kissed whatever part of me you could. I even cried a little and you didn't care!"

Both boys laughed a little at that, and it even brought a smile to Spot's face.

"I knew that I wanted to be with you the second you said you loved me, Spot. In whatever way you'll have me, I want it. You were more than I deserved, Sean."

The two were so close that neither had to move too much to kiss, Spot reaching for Race's leg to drag him in closer.

The two fell back onto the bed, Race's leg on top of Spot as they lazily kissed, breaking it off and Race laying his head on Spot's chest.

Without a word, Spot offered him his hand and their fingers interlocked.

"Did you ever think we'd get here, Spot?" Race asked, looking down at their interlocked hands.

"I had hoped so," he responded, using his free hand to play with the boy's golden hair. "Maybe not during high school, but definitely before that."

"It would've been fine."

"I'm older than you."

"By three years."

"Which is a shitton when you're a teenager!"

Race huffed out a childish laugh, rolling his eyes at Spot's logic. "You're ridiculous."

Spot smiled, but his mind was far away.

The age gap wasn't the only reason Spot had abandoned the idea of pursuing Race through high school: Jack came into the picture.

Him and Race's older brother had never gotten along as kids, but once senior year hit, it all started to go to hell.

Jack, only a junior then, seemed to pick up that Spot cared for Race in a way that wasn't completely platonic, and fuck if he didn't like it. Any chance he got to bad-mouth Spot, he would take. He was nothing. He wasn't worth anyone's time. He was going to end up like everyone else in his neighborhood.

That last comment had seemed more race-oriented than Spot wanted to admit.

Jack didn't like Race hanging out with him after school or in general. He would go out of his way to make sure Spot wouldn't go near him.

Spot knew how important Race's family was to him, and he knew he'd never forgive himself if he made Race choose between him and them. So he left it alone and ran the first chance he could.

And he had regretted it for 5 years.

"Spot?" Race asked, quietly pulling him out of his thoughts. "Did you hear me?"

Spot looked down at the boy in his arms, and smiled. "Can't say I did, doll. Mind repeating it?"

Race smiled at the petname, laying his head in the crook of Spot's neck. "I _said,_ will you teach me some Spanish?"

When they were younger and wanted to escape Race's family, Spot would take him to his neighborhood: it wasn't the nicest looking place, but the people there knew and loved each other like family. They all came to love Race like a son too, waving at him when he walked with Spot, the bodega owner handing them free chips and a soda with a sly smile on his face, the salon ladies giving him free haircuts and barrio gossip, the local kids giving him the nickname " _guero_ _"_ which to this day Spot didn't explain.

It could be said Race grew up with the Spanish language, even if he didn't speak it.

It became sort of a game for them: Spot would say a word in Spanish, Race would repeat it in English.

Spot was surprised he even remembered.

" _Esquína_?"

"Corner."

" _Tienda_?"

"Store."

" _Bombilla_?"

"Uh... er...Lightbulb!"

"You sure?"

"God no," Race laughed, and Spot shook his head.

"Three out of three white boy, you did alright. You'd survive."

Race snuggled in closer, fingers idling on his chest. "Teach me a little more?"

Something in the air changed. He could have kept at the simple words, words Race was bound to know, but there was something more serious here. It didn't seem like a game anyone.

" _Calor_."

Race lifted his head, a peculiar look on his face.

"Heat."

" _Anoche_ _?"_

A tighter grip on Spot's hand.

"Last night."

" _Dolor._ "

A frown on Race's face.

"Pain"

Spot had caused it.

" _Ámame_?"

"... love me."

"You know I do, Race. But maybe you shouldn't love me."

Race deserved someone who could get along with his family, someone who hadn't fled across the country to avoid confronting his emotions, who hadn't basically coerced him into sex within a week of being in the same town for the first time in years.

Race deserved someone better than Spot--

"How do you say kiss me?"

Spot shot him a look of confusion. In the years theyd been playing this little game, Race had never been the one to ask for the word. " _Bésame_."

"And how do you say hold me?"

" _Abrázame_."

"Spot? Will you besame and abrazame?"

It wasn't the proper tense to use the words at all, but he could only nod. "As long as you want me to."

"Then that settles it." Race nodded, as if only now making up his mind. "Spot, you care about me, so much more than anyone else in my life. Why shouldn't I fall in love with you?"

He caught Spot's lips in a light kiss, pressing his free hand right where Spot's heart was.

As they broke apart, the room became more illuminated and both boys turned to the window on the opposite wall, realizing what the intrusion was

The sunrise.

Usually, by the time the sun was up, whoever had been occuping Spot's bed the night before would be long gone. Race was the first person to ever still be there.

"This changes everything. You know that, right?" Spot asked, neither looking at each other, instead focusing on the sunrise. "After this sunrise, nothings going to be the same."

There was no way they could hide this from Race's family. Spot wouldn't want him to. The Larkins were too close for that.

"Maybe I don't want it to be the same," Race replied. "And I know what you're thinking: I'm not letting Jack ruin this."

Spot clutched the boy tighter. "We'll deal with that when it comes, Racer. Let's not think about it."

They watched the sunrise in silence, and it seemed simultaneously like a second and an eternity, but the sun came up completely. The sunrise was gone. And Race was still there.

"How...how do you say promise me?"

" _Prométeme._ "

" _Prométeme..._ you'll stay with me after this sunrise?"

"I'm not going anywhere Racer."

"And how do you say always?"

" _Para_ _siempre_."

" _Para siempre_..." he repeated. "Promise you'll stay _para siempre?_ "

He pressed a kiss to the boy's curls.

"I'll be right here Race. _Para siempre._ I'll be right here."

**Author's Note:**

> If you were not aware, this fic is based on Nina and Benny's relationship and their duet Sunrise from the musical In The Heights. 
> 
> I'm a sucker for Latin! Spot so I really wanted to work in an in the heights au 
> 
> I do have a sequel for this planned, but I have no plans on writing it just yet. But definitely leave suggestions for said sequel!! I'd love to hear your thoughts!
> 
> Thank you for reading this! Leave me comments I'm a whore for validation!!! Bye!


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